Ann Veneman

Ann Margaret Veneman ( born June 29, 1949 in Modesto, California) is an American politician ( Republican) and former director of the UN Children's Fund UNICEF. She was the first woman who was Minister of Agriculture of the United States.

Family and school

Ann Veneman grew up on a peach farm in Modesto. She was a lawyer, graduated as Bachelor in Political Science at the University of California at Davis and a master's degree in Public Policy at the University of Berkeley, California and received his doctorate in law at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

Career

Veneman joined the Foreign Service in 1986 in the Ministry of Agriculture and was auxiliary clerk until 1989. From 1989 to 1991 she was Agriculture Under Secretary for International Affairs and Trade programs. Under President George Bush was 1991-1993 Parliamentary Secretary. She was actively involved in the GATT negotiations in Uruguay, the NAFTA and the free trade agreement between the U.S. and Canada. From 1995 to 1999 Veneman directed the California Department of Food and Agriculture ( California Department of Food and Agriculture ). In this role, she developed agricultural programs for the biggest agricultural products producing state in the U.S.. She was appointed by President George W. Bush as Secretary of Agriculture in his cabinet and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. She took office on January 21, 2001, the day of the inauguration of the President, at. Veneman was the 27th Minister of Agriculture and the first woman to hold the post.

During her tenure, the BSE epidemic, prompting her ministry banned the slaughter of no more runnable animals and the number of BSE tests increased from about 20,000 to 200,000 began. The farmers criticized in her tenure, especially the restrained informing after becoming aware of the disease and a generally working closely with major corporations. It has, for example, set trade restrictions except power and the development of new markets easier. ( She) " played a key role in Eliminating trade barriers and expanding opportunities for American farmers through new export markets She has worked Closely with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, helping lead to the successful launch of a new round of trade Negotiations for the World Trade Organization " wrote Meat News. On November 15, 2004, she announced to resign as Minister of Agriculture; her successor was Mike Johanns. In May 2005, Veneman joined for a term of five years to the Office of the Director of the UN Children's Fund UNICEF and thus took over from Carol Bellamy, who held this post for ten years.

Veneman currently holds a directorship at the company Nestlé. Breast milk initiatives see this as a contradiction to previous work in UNICEF.

Commitment

In her spare time she is involved as a board member of the Close- Up Foundation, an independent organization for civic education based in Washington.